Vegan Cycling Shoes...hard to find?

[robert]

There's a couple of vegan product databases out there I figure. I'd rather suggest to forward info to these people than setting up something yourselves. But I'm not sure which one ...

http://www.natural-health.org.au/
http://www.vegan.at/productdb/index.php5

And countries starting with austr is not some kind of fetish of mine , so that you know.

Just an idea.

[Dave Noisy]

I like the idea of a Wiki...

OA had something like this, maybe we can get a Wiki set up on their site, and link to it...?

[Big Good Wolf]

I went to Leisure Lakes in Wolverhampton today and bought some Northwave Lizzard SBS shoes.
I tried on some Specialized shoes, but I would have needed a 46 which they didn't have in stock. The Northwave was OK for me in a 45.
They didn't have the usual label inside saying what materials they were made out of, but as my Northwave Celsius are vegan and the guy in the shop said I could bring them back for a refund if I found out they weren't, I bought them.
I looked on the Northwave website when I got back and found that they do use leather in some soles. Click on MTB Line > Footbed.
It's not immediately obvious if that's four different footbeds or four layers in one footbed.
I downloaded the catalogue and found that the Lizzard has got the Anatomic Performace footbed, so that is four different types and mine's one of the three vegan ones.

[Boo]

I'm looking for a new pair of trainers to use with my flats when I go off-road. Been trying to find some that have stealth rubber soles or something that will work just as well.

Has anyone got any recommendations?

[downhillingdemon]

I'm looking for a new pair of trainers to use with my flats when I go off-road. Been trying to find some that have stealth rubber soles or something that will work just as well.

Has anyone got any recommendations?

I wrote a bit of spiel about this cos when I switched to riding flats from SPD's I really struggled to find a decent pair of shoes to go with them that were vegan and size 4! I'll cut and paste the text below

One of the hardest things about switching to Flat Pedals from SPD’s was finding a decent pair of vegan shoes to use with them. Good grippy soles are the key: ones which let the pins grip in and stop your feet sliding off on the rocky stuff.

Initially I tried my old veggie skate shoes ( www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk ), but they were relatively smooth bottomed and I was finding my feet sliding off all over the place.

After a bit of internet searching we finally found some vegan Etnies from this website:

http://www.inkfootwear.org/

Since then I have found a few other sites which label specifically the vegan skate shoes:

http://www.kateskates.co.uk/ (type vegan into the search engine and it will bring up all the vegan pairs)

http://www.rawshoe.co.uk/index.htm (raw have a very good search engine which allows you to select ‘skate’ shoes and the size you are looking for and then details all the shoes and their material specifications)

I also managed to find a dodgy pair of fabric duffs in TK Max which have done me good for a couple of months. Ebay is worth checking on a regular basis too – I found several pairs of vegan skate shoes listed, although they never seemed to be in my size. For guys though, there seems to be quite a few options out there.

Despite all this, I was still finding limitations with the shoes because I was still getting used to the whole ‘riding on flats’ thing. It’s not nice finding your feet bouncing off the pedals on the rough stuff, which is, of course, the time you most want to be firmly attached! The non-vegan mountain bikers kept pointing me in the direction of Five Ten Impacts – essentially sturdy cycling shoes with Five Ten Stealth rubber on the bottom. This rubber is super-grippy and is used for a multitude of things, including climbing.

Great I thought – the websites say they are made from ‘Synthetic Action Leather’….hmm, but wait……other websites just say ‘Action Leather’. So I emailed the manufacturer and yup, you’ve guessed it – they are not synthetic at all and are indeed, made from leather.

I was back to square one until the guy at my local bike shop pointed me in the direction of resole companies. Apparently some of the top racers get their sponsored shoes (e.g. Adio) resoled with Five Ten rubber because it is just so much better than anything else out there.

Problem sorted! I bought a new pair of vegan skate shoes from Vegetarian Shoes which are super comfy and look to be pretty water resistant and sent them to these people:

http://www.feetfirst.resoles.co.uk/cycl ... repair.php

A few weeks later I had a pair of vegan skate shoes with super tacky Five Ten soles. Job well done! By heck, don’t they ever make a difference! I am finally able to lift the back wheel with the flat pedals. I haven’t had a single incident of my foot slipping/bouncing since and overall the shoes are super comfy. They will be used during all weathers and I’ll give feedback regarding the durability of them after their stint through the wet British winter.

So here's a pic of the veggie shoes just after I had them done....they have been to hell and back since then and are still in great condition after a year. The veggie skate shoes are absolutely fantastic and the 5:10 sole is still well attached. This is despite them being used constantly and getting regularly soaked through. Actually, as a point, they are pretty weatherproof on the whole and have kept my feet snuggly warm this year through all the awful weather.



Hope that helps a bit!

[Boo]

I'm looking for a new pair of trainers to use with my flats when I go off-road. Been trying to find some that have stealth rubber soles or something that will work just as well.

Has anyone got any recommendations?

I wrote a bit of spiel about this cos when I switched to riding flats from SPD's I really struggled to find a decent pair of shoes to go with them that were vegan and size 4! I'll cut and paste the text below

One of the hardest things about switching to Flat Pedals from SPD’s was finding a decent pair of vegan shoes to use with them. Good grippy soles are the key: ones which let the pins grip in and stop your feet sliding off on the rocky stuff.

Initially I tried my old veggie skate shoes ( www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk ), but they were relatively smooth bottomed and I was finding my feet sliding off all over the place.

After a bit of internet searching we finally found some vegan Etnies from this website:

http://www.inkfootwear.org/

Since then I have found a few other sites which label specifically the vegan skate shoes:

http://www.kateskates.co.uk/ (type vegan into the search engine and it will bring up all the vegan pairs)

http://www.rawshoe.co.uk/index.htm (raw have a very good search engine which allows you to select ‘skate’ shoes and the size you are looking for and then details all the shoes and their material specifications)

I also managed to find a dodgy pair of fabric duffs in TK Max which have done me good for a couple of months. Ebay is worth checking on a regular basis too – I found several pairs of vegan skate shoes listed, although they never seemed to be in my size. For guys though, there seems to be quite a few options out there.

Despite all this, I was still finding limitations with the shoes because I was still getting used to the whole ‘riding on flats’ thing. It’s not nice finding your feet bouncing off the pedals on the rough stuff, which is, of course, the time you most want to be firmly attached! The non-vegan mountain bikers kept pointing me in the direction of Five Ten Impacts – essentially sturdy cycling shoes with Five Ten Stealth rubber on the bottom. This rubber is super-grippy and is used for a multitude of things, including climbing.

Great I thought – the websites say they are made from ‘Synthetic Action Leather’….hmm, but wait……other websites just say ‘Action Leather’. So I emailed the manufacturer and yup, you’ve guessed it – they are not synthetic at all and are indeed, made from leather.

I was back to square one until the guy at my local bike shop pointed me in the direction of resole companies. Apparently some of the top racers get their sponsored shoes (e.g. Adio) resoled with Five Ten rubber because it is just so much better than anything else out there.

Problem sorted! I bought a new pair of vegan skate shoes from Vegetarian Shoes which are super comfy and look to be pretty water resistant and sent them to these people:

http://www.feetfirst.resoles.co.uk/cycl ... repair.php

A few weeks later I had a pair of vegan skate shoes with super tacky Five Ten soles. Job well done! By heck, don’t they ever make a difference! I am finally able to lift the back wheel with the flat pedals. I haven’t had a single incident of my foot slipping/bouncing since and overall the shoes are super comfy. They will be used during all weathers and I’ll give feedback regarding the durability of them after their stint through the wet British winter.

So here's a pic of the veggie shoes just after I had them done....they have been to hell and back since then and are still in great condition after a year. The veggie skate shoes are absolutely fantastic and the 5:10 sole is still well attached. This is despite them being used constantly and getting regularly soaked through. Actually, as a point, they are pretty weatherproof on the whole and have kept my feet snuggly warm this year through all the awful weather.



Hope that helps a bit!

Thank you so much for that info. I was looking for a company that could possibly resole your shoes with stealth rubber as finding vegan friendly ones with the soles already on was impossible! They look pretty cool!

[RawKev]

I was researching Bont cycling shoes and their entire lineup of road track and mountain shoes is Vegan except for their A-One road shoe which is offered in both synthetic and kangaroo leather upper. It's nice that that give the choice, but a shame that the offer the leather at all when the rest of their lineup is synthetic.